Theos-Talk Archives (November 1997 Message tl00384)

At 12:02 AM 11/29/97 -0500, Martin Leiderman wrote:
>Organizations, like friends, families, communities, cities, countries
>and our globe are a fact of life and an important aspect of learning. 

No one says we do not need organizations. We do need organizations to take
care of physical level activities. But when it comes to matters not
belonging to physical activities, I see organizations are a hindrance
simply because each individual is very unique.

At the physical level, when we do need organizations, the organizations
need to be watched relating to the actions they take. With all the best of
intentions, actions taken by the organizations and its leaders can be dead
wrong. This is especially so with organizations dealing with philosophical
(or spiritual related) matters. We all should be vigilant and observant and
when we see something not ok in our perception, we should take on an active
role and speak up. Many times, people belonging to the above type of
organizations don't speak up either due to timidity or fear of one type or
another -- fear in this world or the next world. It is not unknown that
organzations use indirect means of control usually working thru fear.

In this context, all organizations have the natural tendency to protect
their territories and usually will try every means to do so and many time
with the simple rule that end justifies the means. 

In the present day and age, vigilance on the part of people would make the
organizations in many cases more responsible in their actions. Once we take
this balanced view, no one will have any problems with organizations.

As for our search for Truth, which many see as an individual's quest,
organizations can and do such purely mechanical functions as publishing,
broadcasting, holding property to use for individuals to meet and so on.
Whether an organization can guide one to Truth (like a bunch of sheep with
blind belief and not personal knowledge) is something that each individual
has to decide for himself or herself.

MKR